Renga in Blue   Interactive fiction and the All the Adventures project

From the Captain 80 Book of Basic Adventures.

Sometimes I try hard to find an “angle” on a game, pulling out some game design lesson. I’m just not seeing it here.

This really is one of the simplest adventures I’ve played. From the map on my last post, you can remove the enemies by a.) using a peanut butter cup, as shown above b.) yelling, which apparently works on squids underwater c.) throwing a spear, which works on octopi and minotaurs and d.) feeding the “paranhas” to a black manta, who swims away content.

Just a reminder that this was sold as commercial software. Presuming the same price as the other items from Greg Hassett, for $9.95. Accounting for inflation, that’s $32.00 in 2017 dollars.

I was too young and missed this era. Did anyone buy a new copy of a game like this at the time? Did you think it was worth the cost? Is there something about the novelty of it that made it not seem so absurd at the time?

(Isn’t this BBS great? This end screen is from the “Lensman” release — the Mad Hatter commercial version promotes their other games. I have not found references anywhere to “Eiyromancia”.)